FTP/SFTP support in eclipse with Remote System Explorer

I got tired of using an FTP/SFTP client and switching from it to my IDE. So I went on looking for some FTP and SFTP plugins for Eclipse.

I've seen the Aptana Studio or plugin for Eclipse being recommended and tried to use it. Works ok but they only support SFTP in the professional version. Because of that I tried Remote System Explorer. I was quite happy to discover that not only it supports FTP and SFTP but you actually can also open a ssh terminal or issue ssh commands from Eclipse directly.

Install the Remote System Explorer plugin

First you need to install the plugin. With version 3.5.2, you can follow these steps:

1. Go to Help -> Install new software
2. From the "work with" drop-down list select: "Galileo - http://download.eclipse.org/releases/galileo"
3. In the pane below, expand General Purpose Tools and select the Remote System Explorer end user runtime. 
4. Click Next and follow the instructions.

Create a SFTP connection

Once installed you can start creating connections. Just do as follows:

1. switch to Remote System Explorer perspective.
2. Right-click on the Remote Systems view on the left and choose new -> connection.
3. Choose FTP only if that's what you need or SSH only if you want SFTP support as I do.
4. Specify the Host Name and the Connection Name.
5. Finally keep clicking on next until finished.

Tadam! You should have your remote system on the left pane. From there you can start browsing your files or opening an ssh terminal to the remote system. Of course you don't need to be in the RSE perspective. You can switch to any perspective you like and and open the necessary views through Window -> Show View, etc.

Happy Coding!